The Urbee — an electric/liquid-fuel hybrid that will get the equivalent of over 200 mpg on the highway and 100 MPG in the city — is the first prototype car ever to have its entire body 3D printed, according to a Stratasys press release.

All exterior components — including the glass panel prototypes — were created using Dimension 3D Printers and Fortus 3D Production Systems, using fused deposition modeling (FDM), an additive rapid prototyping process in which a plastic filament is liquefied and extruded to form layers of a model.

September 14, 2010 | TEDxSMU Rapid Artists Salon + Exhibit Opening

TEDxSMU is partnering with SculptCAD’s Rapid Artists program for the opening of the first art exhibit of its kind. Fourteen Dallas artists have diverged from their typical mediums to learn to sculpt using digital sculpting programs, and the final renderings of their creations were subsequently produced using ground-breaking 3D printing processes in materials from bronze to plastic.

On September 14, the exhibit will open at One Arts Plaza with an evening event co-produced by TEDxSMU and SculptCAD. Please join us to see the exhibit and hear TEDxTalks from several of the artists involved with the project and visit with the artists one-on-one about the pieces and their inspiration.

This sounds very promising. Lower costs mean more freedom to tinker and more practical utilization. Totally different field here, but on-site 3D printing is within reach of the small- to mid-sized business now with some of Objet‘s smaller models.

From the first link:

A Northwestern University research team has done just that — drawing 15,000 identical skylines with tiny beams of light using an innovative nanofabrication technology called beam-pen lithography (BPL).

Details of the new method, which could do for nanofabrication what the desktop printer has done for printing and information transfer, will be published Aug. 1 by the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The Northwestern technology offers a means to rapidly and inexpensively make and prototype circuits, optoelectronics and medical diagnostics and promises many other applications in the electronics, photonics and life sciences industries.

“It’s all about miniaturization,” said Chad A. Mirkin, George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and director of Northwestern’s International Institute for Nanotechnology. “Rapid and large-scale transfer of information drives the world. But conventional micro- and nanofabrication tools for making structures are very expensive. We are trying to change that with this new approach to photolithography and nanopatterning.”

And:

Beam-pen lithography could lead to the development of a desktop printer of sorts for nanofabrication, giving individual researchers a great deal of control of their work.

“Such an instrument would allow researchers at universities and in the electronics industry around the world to rapidly prototype — and possibly produce — high-resolution electronic devices and systems right in the lab,” Mirkin said. “They want to test their patterns immediately, not have to wait for a third-party to produce prototypes, which is what happens now.”

Maybe the most cutting-edge facet of Iron Man 2’s production was the real-life fabrication of the suits: using 3-D printers, the film’s production company, Legacy Effects, was able to have artists draw an artconcept, input into a CADprogram, and then physically make that concept in just four hours.

April 20, 2010

I”ve been doing a lot of blogging about the SculptCAD Rapid Artist Project lately, and that project involves artists creating digital sculpture using 3D modeling software and then printing the artwork with a 3D printer. These works were limited in size to something you could wrap your arms around.

An Italian inventor, Enrico Dini, chairman of the company Monolite UK Ltd, has developed a huge three-dimensional printer called D-Shape that can print entire buildings out of sand and an inorganic binder. The printer works by spraying a thin layer of sand followed by a layer of magnesium-based binder from hundreds of nozzles on its underside. The glue turns the sand to solid stone, which is built up layer by layer from the bottom up to form a sculpture, or a sandstone building.

The D-shape printer can create a building four times faster than it could be built by conventional means, and reduces the cost to half or less. There is little waste, which is better for the environment, and it can easily “print” curved structures that are difficult and expensive to build by other means. Dini is proving the technology by creating a nine cubic meter pavilion for a roundabout in the town of Pontedera.

Customers can upload designs or use a creation tool hosted at the Shapeways website then order a printed model of their designs for less than $3 per square centimeter. The printed items are shipped to the customer in ten days or less, bringing 3-D printing directly to consumers.

I blogged about Shapeways a couple of weeks ago here and the latest update about the consumer 3D company popped up in the inbox today. The company is announcing the Shapeways Creator Engine, an online tool for 3D modeling.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post on Shapeways, I do communications consulting for a company in the 3D visualization and modeling space and it’s a fairly esoteric and very expensive industry for operations at any level.

The high end will remain up in the stratosphere, but I think it’s great Shapeways is bringing this tech “to the masses,” so to speak. Without having a closer look at its tools and process, it seems Shapeways is offering a reasonable entry into the world of 3D visualization and modeling for professionals and hobbyists alike.

August 12, 2008 – Los Angeles, CA- SIGGRAPH, Booth #138 – Shapeways, a new platform and global community for 3D-design and production, takes
a major step towards the next generation of consumer co-creation with the announcement of the Shapeways Creator Engine. For the first time, consumers without 3D modeling skills can shape, mash, imprint and design their own 3D products in just a few mouse clicks at Shapeways.com. From lamps with a personal message to fruit bowls linking back to memorable moments, the Shapeways Creator Engine has a beta library of predesigned product templates which is expected to
grow rapidly over 2009.

“We recognize the desire of consumers who want to own or give something that is unique and has their special, personal touch,” commented Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of Shapeways. “With the Creator Engine, now anyone can participate in the artistic process and create something that is truly a reflection of their own needs and tastes.
With the Creator Engine, we have broken the currently existingtrade-off between freedom of design and the complexity of the design process.”

“In today’s world, consumers are universally less and less satisfied with the choice that the usual shops offer,” said Jochem de Boer, CMO of Shapeways. “Instead, they are looking for ways to reflect their personal identity in the objects that they choose to have around them, or that they carefully select as a unique gift for their loved ones.”

Shapeways offers 3D modelers an affordable, web-based platform to share and produce their designs imported directly from popular 3D modeling software via a technique called 3D printing. Shapeways verifies objects to ensure printability and provides a real-time cost estimate. Within 10 working days, a tangible 3D product will be produced and arrive at the consumer’s home globally.

About Shapeways
Shapeways is the first online 3D consumer co-creation community. Harnessing the power of a creative community and a global network of production service partners, Shapeways ensures the most cost-efficient, reliable manufacturing and order fulfillment for digital manufacturing today. Shapeways is spinning-out from the
Lifestyle Incubator of Royal Philips Electronics, located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Based in the Waitakeres, in West Auckland, software developer and artist Vik Olliver is part of a team developing an open-source, self-copying 3D printer. The RepRap (Replicating Rapid-prototyper) printer can replicate and update itself. It can print its own parts, including updates, says Olliver, who is one of the core members of the RepRap team.

The 3D printer works by building components up in layers of plastic, mainly polylactic acid (PLA), which is a bio-degradable polymer made from lactic acid. The technology already exists, but commercial machines are very expensive. They also can’t copy themselves, and they can’t be manipulated by users, says Olliver.